ChillSpot Online: Our Art is Life

Jered
Don’t know if I mentioned it, but I own an architectural firm – JRB & Associates, LLC. It’s basically me and my partner Braylon. Rob used to work with us, but thought he was better off on his own, and sold his share in the company to us. We liked the sound of JRB, so we left him in, plus he’s still friends with us! In any case, things have been a little tight lately, with the down turn in the economy and whatnot. It was always hard for a small minority-owned company to get the prime contracts, but now? Shit, our biggest deal this quarter was designing and building a coffee shop for a hopeful entrepreneur. But we push on, beating the streets for whatever leads we can get.
I get up at 5:30 every morning to get a jump on the day, with a bagel, some orange juice, some stretching, a prayer and to reorder my schedule. One of the disadvantages of working with a staff of five is that you have to know what everyone is doing and make sure each of them is doing it, no first officer there to whip crack in your absence. So, between that, and making sure I have my affairs in order, I spend 20 to 30 minutes each day double checking what I have to do, what I want to do and what I wish I could do, then moving on to Braylon (who can be a bit of a burden, because the damn fool knows I do this, so he slacks off) and right down to Chelsea, the receptionist/administrative assistant, who is quick to jump off into Facebook or Youtube, or whatever internet based distraction is de jour.
Trying to leave a strong footprint in the black and Hispanic communities leads us to a dilemma I wish I didn’t have to deal with: lazy ass contractors. Yeah, the worse part of working with other minority-owned businesses is that many of them - stereotypically so – in fact, are basically waiting on a handout. A damn handout! Even from other brothers and sisters who they KNOW ain’t got shit either. If it’s not that, then it’s simply keeping them in line, and on task, without overpaying or overpromising anything. I had to light into Braylon early on because he prepaid the contractors to the tune of $65,000, for a project, and, of course, they all got drunk and paid for hookers or whatever the hell they did, and no one could be found for four days. Once I finally did track them down (and I had to literally go down in the hood for these negroes) they denied ever receiving money, then said Braylon told them to take a week off. We lost that time on the project, had to hire another company to cover, and it took nearly a year to recoop the money, because Braylon took the money directly from our funds, instead of writing a check, like our policy states, or clearing it with Chelsea, whose main job is to make sure we don’t go broke. We survived that, and all the other craziness that comes with basically being hustlers in a field where the old boys still smoke cigars in the country clubs and collude to keep all the best deals. And we’re not doing so bad these days, knock on wood. At least the lights stay on.

Sorry this took so long … the ear infection is a cruel thing.

Life is an interesting ride. Full of pitfalls and valleys, but also full of peaks and sunrises. The last three months have been quite a journey, one which I would not trade for anything else. There has been plenty of time for introspection, as if I needed any more? But there it was, to be had in boatloads, just overwhelming at times. When things get quiet, you’re forced to look inward for sound, for a voice, for whatever sustenance you require mentally. That’s not typically how people work. Usually people, the social creatures that we are, feed off one another for energy. To feed off yourself is cannibalism, not a socially-acceptable concept in America. But it can be fulfilling, if difficult. I’ve learned a lot about myself, and my potential path. The question is as it always is: how to do it? I’ll keep you posted on my progress…